Instagram Reels dimensions
Instagram Reels dimensions are 1080×1920 pixels at a 9:16 vertical ratio — get that right and most upload failures disappear. Here are the full specs, safe zones, and cover sizes worth locking in before you export.
6 min read · Updated July 2026
The numbers that matter
Reels are built for a full-screen vertical phone, so the whole spec flows from one shape: tall and narrow. Export to these targets and Instagram has nothing to crop, re-fit, or reject.
- Resolution: 1080×1920 pixels (Full HD vertical) is the recommended target.
- Aspect ratio: 9:16 vertical — the only ratio that fills the screen edge to edge.
- Cover / thumbnail: same 1080×1920 frame; a 1:1 crop of it shows in your grid.
- Format: MP4 or MOV, H.264 video, AAC audio.
- Frame rate: 30fps is safe; higher is fine and re-encoded on upload.
Length: how long a reel can be
Reels have stretched well past their original 15-second roots. You can publish substantially longer reels now, but longer is not automatically better — retention is what the algorithm rewards, and a tight 20-second reel that holds attention usually outperforms a loose 90-second one that people swipe away from.
Practical rule: make the reel exactly as long as the idea needs and not a second longer. Cut the intro, start on the hook, and end the moment the payoff lands.
Respect the safe zones
The 1080×1920 frame is not all usable space. Instagram overlays the caption, username, audio label, and action buttons along the bottom and right edge, and those overlays sit on top of your video. Anything important placed there gets covered.
- Keep captions and key text roughly in the center, away from the bottom ~15% and the right edge.
- Leave headroom at the top so text is not crowded by the status bar area.
- Design the cover so the grid crop (a 1:1 square from the center) still reads well.
Export once, at the highest quality
Instagram always re-encodes and compresses reels on upload. If you start from an already-compressed export, that compression compounds and the reel looks soft. Render from your highest-quality source at 1080×1920, and let Instagram do its single pass — do not pre-shrink the file to 'help'.
When you schedule the reel in advance, this careful export is a calm one-time step. Multipost validates the file against Instagram's reel requirements when you queue it, so an out-of-spec export surfaces immediately instead of failing silently at the publish window.
Frequently asked questions
What are the correct Instagram Reels dimensions?
1080×1920 pixels at a 9:16 vertical aspect ratio. That is the full-screen phone frame Reels are designed for, and exporting to it avoids the cropping and re-fitting that cause most upload problems.
What aspect ratio should an Instagram Reel be?
9:16 vertical. Other ratios technically upload but get cropped or padded, wasting screen space in a format that is all about filling the screen.
What video format does Instagram Reels use?
MP4 or MOV with H.264 video and AAC audio. Export at 1080×1920 from your highest-quality source, since Instagram re-encodes the file once on upload.
Why does my reel look blurry after uploading?
Usually because the source was already compressed before upload, so Instagram's own re-encode compounds it. Export fresh at 1080×1920 at high quality and avoid pre-shrinking the file.